Day 211, Year 6 T Dock to S Dock and Creepy Crawlies
Date: Monday, May 23, 2011
Weather: Partly Sunny; 77 degrees F
Location: Lightkeepers Marina, Little River, South Carolina

Today was a Windbird work day. Mark and I went to the boat early and our friend Lee met us there. Mark and Lee worked on a list of boat maintenance jobs—pickled the watermaker, rewired the boat for 110 instead of 220 volt, bought and installed a new starter battery, measured the height of the mast to verify in case we need to head north through the inland waterway (the bridges are mostly fixed at 64 or 65 feet)—and we moved the boat from the end of the T dock to a slip on S dock. We wanted to make this move before leaving for Georgia on Wednesday so we could feel confident that Windbird is in a secure spot. Being on the end of T dock meant a lot of big boats came barreling by and turned in just behind us, sometimes seeming to be just a little too close. Now that we are in a slip we won’t have to worry about passing boats. I helped with some of the chores and then put my efforts into organizing a presentation about our voyage and getting the things packed that we will need for our trip to north Georgia.

Tonight at my sister’s we had fun with the little Green Treefrogs that live in her neighborhood. They are the cutest little bright green creatures, but come evening they plaster themselves all over the eves of the house and crawl down onto the glass sliding doors and leave a trail behind. Patsy doesn’t like them because of the mess they make, which I fully understand, but still they are just too cute. Tonight when I was trying to get photos of them, one jumped right on my cheek and latched on. Cute or not, it scared me half to death. And these little guys just love to wake you up in the middle of the night with their loud, nasal “queenk, queenk, queenk” call. The other creepy crawly that hangs out on her deck is a little green lizard called a Green Anole. This critter can be completely green, green and brown, or completely brown. When brown the anole may also have a lighter stripe down the back. The throat fan, or dewlap, is bright pink to red. Some people refer to this anole as a chameleon because of its ability to change colors, but the anole’s ability to change colors is due to temperature, stress, or other environmental factors—not due to the color on which it is located. The male displays the bright red throat fan while bobbing up and down in order to court a female. The breeding season extends from April to August and sometimes into September, so Patsy and Joe get to watch this show all summer.

Mark is working on getting an appointment set with a urologist at Mass General for the end of June. Thanks to our friend Dick Wiklund back on Cape Cod, we are making progress. We have the name of a physician and have started the appointment process by first registering with Mass General. We are hoping to have the appointment set by tomorrow. Then on Wednesday morning we will head to northern Georgia to spend a few days with Mark’s sister.

110523 Day 211 The Carolinas–Creepy, Crawly Things